Domestic Notices. 65 



Fujchs\a. fidgens. — This plant may be flowered very successfully, both 

 in the open ground and in pots plunged in the borders. They also make 

 fine groups in flower gardens by turning them out of the pots when they 

 grow very luxuriantly. The soil they like is composed of loam, sand and 

 leaf-mould.— ^M 1842, p. 526.) 



Summer Management of Htatlis. — My heaths are all placed in a pit 

 facing south, on a slate platform or stage. The plants are sufficiently 

 distant not to touch one another ; but the chief point is, having the pots 

 all plunged in moss. The lights have been oflf since June last, so that 

 they have the full influence of the sun and air ; and the plants are very 

 healthy and bushy, and flower freely. Heaths being natives of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, would not suffer from tlie heat of the sun in this climate, 

 if the roots are protected ; and this the moss does efi^ectually, and keeps 

 them cool and moist also. — (Gardenti's Chronicle, 1842, p. 574.) 



Effects of salt upon Celery. — Some time ago you pointed out the bene- 

 ficial effects of salt in growing asparagus. There is another plant culti- 

 vated in gardens, which would be greatly benefited if a little more salt 

 was added to its food — for I believe the manure which it commonly re- 

 ceives, is as wairish to its taste, as brose without salt to a Scotchman. 

 Celery is the plant I mean ; I recollect gathering it in a wild state, some 

 years ago, on the north side of the Fritli of Fortli, in situations that 

 would be watered by spring tides — and, I believe that it is commonly 

 found, both in England and Scotland, in ditches near tiie sea. This sea- 

 son I gave a considerable quantity of salt to a row of celery, by putting 

 it between the plants some time after they were planted. I then watered 

 them freely, which carried the saline particles down to the roots. This 

 appears to have done the plants much good, for they grew remarkably 

 well afterwards. From the Report of the Covent Garden Market, some 

 time ago, it appears that celery this season has been rather shorter than 

 usual. Some of my plants to which salt was applied, measured, by the 

 middle of September, four feet in height, thirty inches of which were 

 well blanched.— I'M 1842, p. 693.) 



Cultivation of the Strawberry. — On the piece of ground intended for 

 planting, I spread a layer of long stable dung a foot thick. I trench tlie 

 ground 3 feet deep, putting the manure at the bottom of the trench. 

 Long dung is then spread on the surface of the trenched ground to the 

 depth of six inches, and afterwards dug in. Beds four feet wide are 

 marked out, with a foot-alley between each — which is highly necessary to 

 prevent those who gather the fruit, from treading between the plants : and 

 lastly, the runners are planted two feet apart. A bed thus made will last 

 tliree years without requiring anything farther, not even so much as a top- 

 dressing ; but the runners should be removed, and the beds kept free from 

 weeds. As I make my plantations from July to October, the plants come 

 into bearing the following spring — strawberries planted upon ground thus 

 prepared, do not require to be watered even in the hottest weatlier, be- 

 cause of the depth to which the roots will penetrate. I find that stony 

 growing kinds, such as the British Queen, require a more loamy soil than 

 others. If the planting is deferred until spring, the crop will not be half 

 so large.— f/flf. 1842, p. 694.) 



Grafting Cacti. — The following method of grafting cacti I find to be 

 very ornamental. Last year, having several plants of Pereskra aculeata, 

 from 8 to 10 feet high, which had been grafted at the top with Cereus flag- 



VOL. IX NO. II. 9 



